Hope.

During the month of March my husband was still in Tax Season, our kids had 1 eye surgery, 3 follow up appointments, 1 neuro psych testing session, croup, and a broken collar bone (plus lots of time outs, fits, and early bed times). As I was driving to take Sydney for X-rays I was thinking how lucky I am.

Not for the basic stuff: house, car, job, food on the table and GREAT health insurance. But lucky that I know my life has purpose. Lucky that I know I have a creator who loves me and has a plan for my life and the life of my family. If I didn't know that there was a bigger purpose to my life, March might have be the death of me.

Jeremiah 29:11'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.'

Even when I have a month like March, the worst month of the whole year if you ask me, I know that everything has a purpose.  I LOVE knowing that the Lord wants me to succeed! He wants what is best for me. Let me clarify, what HE knows is best for me. Not what I think is best for me. What he has in store is much better for me that anything I could dream. When I start surrendering to his will for my life I am much much happier.

I fell into a depressive state of mind for about 2 weeks. I know that God wanted me to do something I was too scared to do. I pushed it off for months. I got so depressed! I was reading my Bible, doing Bible study and praying. Doing all the things I'm 'suppose' to do. But nothing helped me out of the depression. I knew I was being disobedient. So when I finally sat down to do what I was suppose to do, the fog lifted. He rewards us for obedience. He definitely gives us consequences for heading the other way(ie, book of Jonah). I wasn't swallowed by a fish, but still!

So my next thought after how lucky I am was: What if you don't know God? What if you are just living life not knowing you have a purpose!  What if you don't know someone loves you more than you can imagine. I was instantly sad. No hope? How do you survive with no hope? I'm sure there are coping mechanisms. But nothing compares to the love of Christ.

A relationship with him doesn't guarantee an easy life. It doesn't guarantee money, friends, and health as some people preach (Prosperity Gospel). But it does guarantee you will never be alone. You will never need to wonder if you have been abandoned, although you might at times. It also guarantees the most important thing, Life. I won't go all fire and brimstone, and lake of fire. But trust me, heaven is something you don't want to miss out on.